Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TheLoneWolfling 3937 days ago
I like C#. There are two reasons why I don't use it more.

First, the whole .NET thing (Or rather, the lack of cross-platform compatibility). Yes, Mono is pretty good, but nowhere near perfect. (Although note that this is changing).

And second, enums are hideous in C#. One of the few things Java does better than C#.
1 comments
nvivo 3937 days ago
That's funny. Enums are one of the things I believe C# got better than java.
link
TheLoneWolfling 3937 days ago
Elaborate?

I find it really annoying that C# enums cannot have constructors and variables.

link
nvivo 3936 days ago
That's exactly the point. Enums are just enumerations, they're not classes. It makes little sense in my opinion to add constructors and variables to enums.

You can do exactly what java calls enums with classes in C#, which in my view are better suited to having constructors and fields. But I agree it's all preferences.

link
TheLoneWolfling 3936 days ago
> You can do exactly what java calls enums with classes in C#

No you cannot. You lose the single biggest benefit of enumerations - namely compile-time checking. (For instance: warning when a switch statement does not cover all cases.)

Try to do this in C#, and you'll see what I mean: http://snipplr.com/view/42422/the-planet-enum-example/. Either you end up with it being ~3x as verbose (if not more), or you lose the compile-time benefits, or both.

link